The Shocking Truth About How Much Trash You Generate in Just One DayNews from One Green Planet:

Have you ever thought about how much plastic you use on a daily basis? Maybe you’ve been conscious of avoiding certain plastic products, like water bottles or shopping bags. But have you offered much thought to exactly how much plastic you utilize from sun up to sun down, in spite of some of those common plastic items?

Let’s walk through an ordinary day with situations encountered by the ordinary person to explore just how much plastic is intertwined into our lives.

Up And At ‘Em

Upon waking, there’s a chance you come into contact with plastic within seconds. Perhaps you use a cell phone with a plastic case or an alarm clock with a plastic body to wake you up. And so begins a day sponsored by plastic.

So, I was garbage picking at work last week when I came across a book called “The Encyclopedia of Household Hints and Dollar Stretchers,” by Michael Gore. Published in 1957, it has only gotten better with age – if only for its delightfully musty, old-book scent.

In addition to painstaking instructions on how to make a cup of tea and how to fill out a check, it includes “all the shortcuts and wife-savers that take the ache out of housecleaning, laundering, meal preparation, household maintenance, as well as the care and feeding of babies, husbands and the furnace.”

Sure, some of the language and notions are outdated (there’s an entire section called “How to Please Men”), but that’s half the fun. And what’s really striking is how little most of these time and money savers have changed over the past six decades. Here are a few that still hold up.

Use bluing for whiter whites. To keep whites from turning dingy or yellow, add bluing solution. You can get two 8-ounce bottles of Mrs. Stewart’s Concentrated Liquid Bluing, which has been around since 1883, on Amazon.com for $ 9.99. Be sure to follow the instructions.

Maximize a small wardrobe. Choose clothes in colors and styles that can easily be mixed and matched. Better yet, a “variety of removable dickies and scarfs will do wonders.”

What it costs to live for a month in Beijing, ChinaNews from Business Insider:

Richelle / Life Part 2Richelle, who lives in Beijing.

China is definitely significantly cheaper than a lot of western countries. But how cheap is cheap? Beijing is one of my favorite cities in China, but is also one of the most expensive places to live in this vast country.

Whether you’re about to move to China, or are curious about the possibility, here is a step-by-step breakdown of what it costs to live in Beijing for one month.

The first and most obvious cost is housing. While this can vary greatly depending on the location and type of accommodation, you should expect to pay between $ 1,500 USD and $ 1,800 USD for a nice one-bedroom apartment or hutong house in a good area. If this seems expensive, there are definitely much cheaper options. I paid about $ 370 USD per month for a bedroom in an apartment with no living room and three random roommates.

While the housing in Beijing is expensive compared to other cities in China, public transportation is extremely cheap. The subway is $ .50 USD anywhere you want to go in the city. The bus is even cheaper, at about $ .05 with a bus card ($ …………… continues on Business Insider

Are you preparing to put your house on the market and know you must remove an abundance of extra items before that can happen? If so, professional organizers urge you to allow extra time to declutter your home office.

”It’s very time-consuming to go through everything in a home office, so you must make it a priority,” said Laura Leist, author of “Eliminate Chaos: The 10-Step Process to Organize Your Home and Life.”

Leist, who owns a professional organizing firm, said many sellers face tremendous problems dealing with the stacks of paper, books and magazines that crowd their home offices.

”People don’t know how to make decisions about paper, what to keep and what to toss out or put through the shredder,” said Leist, a former president of the National Association of Professional Organizers (www.napo.net).

Ronni Eisenberg, author of “Organize Your Home Office,” said the process of decluttering a home workspace isn’t nearly as hard for younger people who grew up with computers as it is for older people.

Regardless of how difficult it is, clearing out your office is a pre-sale necessity.

”People can’t picture themselves living in your house if it’s filled with clutter in any room, let alone the home office,” said Susan Pinsky, a veteran organizer and author of books on the topic.

Johnson Service Group boss Chris Sander knows more about clean and dirty laundry than most. Having started with a Saturday job on delivery vans at the age of eight, he became a Johnson’s salaried employee 31 years ago, joined the board in 2008 and was promoted to chief executive last year.

Back in 2008, Johnson shares hit a low of 9½p. Since then, Sander has helped steer the stock to today’s price of 86½p.

Midas first looked at the business in March…………… continues on This is Money

Life hacks: 10 simple cleaning tips for your homeNews from The Independent:

A YouGov poll commissioned by green energy company Good Energy, showed that less than half (49%) of those surveyed said that they still undertake a once a year comprehensive clean of their homes. A sizeable 30% also confessed that they have never even attempted to do so.

The Wiltshire-based renewable electricity company also found that 41% of people saw spring cleaning as an old-fashioned practice, whilst nearly two thirds (60%) felt that their parents and grandparents generation were more concerned about having a cleaner home.

Although cleaning can be annoying and rather time consuming, Juliet Davenport, founder and CEO of Good Energy, argues that a few clever cleaning hacks can make your life a lot easier. “There are some great ‘lemontastic’ vintage cleaning ideas out there.

“Simple, cheap ingredients like lemons and vinegar can be used to get homes in tip-top condition and we’re encouraging everyone to give it a go.

“Not only are these top tips kinder on the pocket – they don’t require any electricity either!”

A great example is creating a spray made from lemon juice and water as an alternative to air fresheners. The zesty natural spray will not only keep the home smelling fresh but lemons also have some great anti-bacterial qualities that make them perfect for cleaning.

These planet saving cleaning hacks can not only go a l…………… continues on The Independent

I’ve been asked this question countless times by fellow Alcantara wheel owners, “what’s the most effective way to clean and restore my Alcantara steering wheel?”

Now, there are many video tutorials online with links to expensive chemicals and specialist tools and materials but in my honest opinion, it’s all absolute nonsense! Here is my super simple 5 step 15 minute process to getting that Alcantara wheel back to its lovely original soft fuzzy glory!

Chances are, if you have an alcantara steering wheel on your car, it probably looks something like this. Flat and shiny in the “three” and “nine” positions, and a little bit grey and faded the rest of the way around.

To get your wheel back to its former glory without having to spend money on gimmicy chemicals and materials, this is what you need:

Some washing detergent, either bio, non bio, powder or liquid although liquid does work best!

Rick Vaca, owner of Vaca’s Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning, right, and Devin Collingwood, his lead technician, stand by their truck with its powerful cleaning equipment. Vaca has owned his business in Ramona for 27 years.

Rick Vaca’s business is usually cleaning carpets and upholstery, but after the July rainstorms he was swamped with calls for flood restoration.

“Even before the last bit of rain, I was getting calls,” he said of the July 19 downpour that produced 3 inches of rain. “We did two big whole house extractions. We worked late into the night.”

The 1982 Ramona High School graduate started his business, Vaca’s Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning, in 1988. Flood restoration is a part of the business, but calls usually involve flooding in a house from interior water, said Vaca.

After the July 19 storm, calls for flood restoration kept coming in, he said.

Each house would take three to four hours to extract the water, and for 2-1/2 days he only did water extr…………… continues on Ramona Sentinel

As a parent or guardian, your job is to love and protect. Whether it’s teaching your kids to never speak to strangers or baby-proofing every room in the house, preparation is key in preventing harm to your children. While you’ve already checked off every item on your child-safety checklist, you might be surprised to learn you’re missing five deadly hazards to your children’s well-being, and they might be lurking right within your home. Household accidents are the leading cause of the 9,000 juvenile fatalities reported each year by the Center for Disease Control, and can easily be prevented with awareness of the hidden dangers at home.

1. Laundry/Dishwasher Detergent Pods

From January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2015 alone, the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported 6,046 complaints of children under the…………… continues on Care2.com

An authoritative guide to reducing household exposure to hazardous chemicals Thousands of household products contain toxic ingredients. Today, more and more people are seeking more natural cleaning methods to reduce their exposure to harsh chemicals. From the kitchen and bath to the living room and laundry, Green Cleaning For Dummies provides readers with green solutions to every common cleaning chore. Focusing on organic, nontoxic, sustainable alternatives to conventional cleaning products, it’s packed with suggestions and tips for effective cleaning, and even offers green solutions for sprucing up patios, garages, vehicles, and the exterior of a house.
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